More States Requiring Mental Health Benefits For Insurees
More and more states are requiring that health insurers cover the costs of mental illnesses as well as physical ailments, but so-called "mental health parity" laws are not all created equal. The laws...
View ArticlePriorities 2000: An Arizona View
Arizona Gov. Jane Hull has called her legislature into special session to try to get funding for a new state hospital for the mentally ill. And Hull says she will continue to pursue the issue in the...
View ArticleInsight Key To Stemming School Shootings, Study Says
Six of the eight children involved in the worst school massacres in US history, including Paducah, Jonesboro and Columbine, had mental illnesses that could have been treated had they been detected,...
View ArticleMental Health Patients Lost in Budget Gap
Across the country, mental health advocates are watching states scale back on services for those suffering from mental illnesses, eroding the quality of care in what many advocates and officials...
View ArticleGovernors Call on Congress to Cover Dual-Eligibles
Illustrating the strain of health care costs on state budgets, the nation's governors on Friday (8/1) unanimously called for the federal government to assume responsibility for the more than 6 million...
View ArticleGovernors Commit to Medicaid, High School Reforms
The nation's governors wrapped up four days of meetings in Washington, D.C., and came away with homework. They agreed to two urgent tasks: coming up with a bipartisan plan to fix Medicaid and taking...
View ArticleTreating Mental Illness Burning State Issue
Depressed? Anxious? If you seek treatment, your private health insurance might not cover your treatment in the same way it pays for other illnesses, depending on what state you live in. But for most...
View ArticleNew courts tailored to war veterans
Twenty years after local officials in Miami opened the nation's first drug court - a specialized "treatment court" aimed at rehabilitating low-level drug offenders instead of locking them up - state...
View ArticleGa. hotline aims to cut mental health costs
Even as the recession chips away at mental health services across the country, Georgia's around-the-clock psychiatric hotline is finding a way to weather the storm - and other states are watching closely.
View ArticleSummary of the Washington State of the State Address
"Jobs are the way out of this recession," Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) told the Democratic-led Legislature in her state of the state address Jan. 12, laying out a series of proposals she said...
View ArticleAs Economy Takes Toll, Mental Health Budgets Shrink
Funding for mental health services used to go up, in good times and bad. Now, states are cutting back. The result is longer waiting lists for certain services and a growing risk that more people will...
View ArticleMaine Republican Legislators Contemplate End to Labor Committee
TRANSITION WATCH: Maine Republicans seek to fold historic panel, Connecticut's pension gap gets bigger, and more news of the historic shift in power in the states.
View ArticleFunding Children's Dental Care
The Pew Children’s Dental Campaign is partnering with dental provider associations, consumer groups and children’s advocates at the state and federal levels to increase federal support for Medicaid and...
View ArticleMental Health Funding Decreases in Many States
TODAY'S TAKE: General fund spending on mental health programs declined in more than half the states over the last three years, according to a new report. Nine states cut funding by more than 10 percent.
View ArticleStates Crack Down on Mental Health Prescriptions
Medicaid is saving substantial amounts of money by limiting access to behavioral medications. But is it fair to the patients?
View ArticleOklahoma Looks for Ways to Keep Mentally Ill Ex-offenders Out of Prison
The mentally ill account for an ever-greater portion of prison populations. Oklahoma has had success in preventing former inmates with mental problems from being incarcerated again.
View ArticleParity for Behavioral Health Coverage Delayed by Lack of Federal Rules
Congress passed a mental health and drug treatment parity law four years ago, but state enforcement is stymied by the Obama Administration’s failure to issue rules.
View ArticleEasiest Path to Mental Health Funding May Be Medicaid Expansion
Even after mass shootings have shed light on the inadequacy of mental health services, states are unlikely to come up with much new money. But the federal government might, through Medicaid expansion.
View ArticleStates Tackle School Safety After Sandy Hook Shootings
At least 20 states are considering bills that would allow some teachers to be armed. Others are focusing on emergency plans and mental health checks.
View ArticleHealth Care Cuts From Vaccinations to Research
Automatic cuts to federal health-care programs may make it more difficult for low-income Americans to get maternal and infant care, vaccinate their children, and receive treatment for mental illness.
View ArticleStates Tackle Mental Illness and Gun Ownership
New York’s new gun law requires mental health providers to report on dangerous patients. Will the law harm treatment?
View ArticleMass. Health Connector, Other Innovations Honored
As the Obama administration and Congress debate the details of a national health care plan, the state that paved the way for universal coverage was honored in Washington, D.C.
View ArticleQ&A: How ACA Will Affect People With Autism
Autism advocates expected Obamacare to require insurers to cover treatment. But political pressure from states and insurers yielded a more ambiguous result.
View Article'Peers' Seen Easing Mental Health Worker Shortage
Lacking enough psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatric nurses, some states will call on a different category of caregiver to meet the surging demand for mental health services under Obamacare.
View ArticleNew Psychosis Center Aims to Prevent Violence
While most states cut mental health spending, one state hopes to prevent violence by identifying and treating psychosis.
View Article
